The Denver Broncos were embarrassed from start to finish on Sunday Night Football against the Oakland Raiders, who are now in lone possession of 1st place…
My eyes can’t hardly believe what they have just seen.
After years and years of dominance, the Denver Broncos have finally been handed their jock straps by the Oakland Raiders, in a game that was controlled from start to finish by the home team.
Oakland put up 30 points on the Broncos’ vaunted (but beaten and battered) defense, and the offense was miserable in the early going. It was too much to overcome in the end.
It puts a bitter taste in the mouths of Denver Broncos fans, and rightfully so. This was a pitiful performance from the top to the bottom for the Broncos, with really two plays highlighting an otherwise horrendous night.
Highlights
Jordan Norwood caught a touchdown pass for the Broncos on a really good throw from Trevor Siemian. This came after the Broncos struggled mightily to get anything going in the first half offensively, and finally put some things together in the 2nd quarter.
Kapri Bibbs took a screen pass 69 yards to the house late in the game when the Raiders had pretty much already sealed the victory, showing incredible effort and possibly earning himself some additional reps moving forward.
Not Highlights
This game was very poorly managed from Gary Kubiak and the Broncos’ coaching staff. From the opening kickoff when Kapri Bibbs made the decision to take the ball out of the end zone (three straight kickoffs, I’ll add), it was apparent this team had no real plan at all.
The Broncos started the game with four straight three-and-outs. It was questionable if the offense would ever get anything going. Trevor Siemian was again ineffective for most of the game, and actually had decent protection much of the game from what I could tell. We will certainly go back and double check that, but this was not really on the offensive line. The Broncos simply didn’t have anything going on offense, run game, pass game, or otherwise.
The play-calling on third down is atrocious for the Broncos offensively. You’d be hard pressed to find many third down passing plays this year for Denver that were designed to gain as many or more yards than the Broncos actually needed to get to the line to gain.
Every third down play seems to be called in such a way that the Broncos need to gain yards after the catch, and that’s been a season-long problem.
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Defensively, there was really nothing the Broncos could do right in this game. Because of the play calling offensively and decisions to bring the ball out of the end zone and give them horrid field position, the defense had to deal with short fields to start the game.
Latavius Murray and the Oakland running game had an absolute field day against the Broncos, something that was absolutely sickening for fans who have been used to a suffocating defense. Couple that with some very poor play by Bradley Roby, and it was a recipe for disaster for the Denver defense.
What didn’t help, either, was the fact that Von Miller was getting held on every play. Hopefully the NFL will take a look at what’s been going on on Miller’s side of the field and take note going forward.
The bottom line for this game is the simple fact that the Broncos were crushed, and there’s no excuse about it. The coaching staff needs to get the lion’s share of the blame for not having a better plan in place to put points on the board against one of the league’s worst defenses. They should also be ashamed of their horrendous third-down play-calling.
The Broncos just simply aren’t making plays offensively right now. They can’t run the ball, they can’t throw the ball. They can’t block. They aren’t disciplined. They are an absolute mess on offense, and that falls on Gary Kubiak’s shoulders.